Harry Burrell: The Platypus Man

He called himself the first Platypoditudinarian. Harry Burrell was a self-taught naturalist who fell in love with Australia's most extraordinary animal and spent decades proving the world wrong about it. This exhibit tells his story - part scientist, part showman, entirely obsessed.

Settled in Manilla, New South Wales, Burrell built home-made glass tanks to observe, photograph and film Platypuses along local riverbanks, becoming the first European to keep the species alive in captivity. His landmark 1927 book, The Platypus, was for many years the definitive work on the species. This special temporary display brings together original specimens, archival documents, field photography and his 1924 educational film - a remarkable record of a man who devoted his life to understanding one of nature's greatest curiosities.